Resource Type: Case Study
Authors: Justin Tine, Sophie Faye, Sharon Nakhimovsky, and Laurel Hatt
Published: 04/2014

Resource Description:

To advance the global discussion on the availability, feasibility, and relevance of various candidate indicators for UHC measurement, the Health Finance and Governance project, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, conducted a case study in Senegal. The objective was to gather the views of the stakeholders on the ground, and those of other partners, regarding the relevance of the WHO indicators and stakeholders’ preferences for particular indicators, as well as to analyze the country’s capacity to provide the information. We used a methodology combining interviews with key stakeholders, a review of strategic documents and policies, and an analysis of the health information tools used by the various stakeholders.

Like many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Senegal has embraced UHC as a health sector priority, but faces considerable challenges to enacting UHC reforms and making progress towards UHC goals. The government of Senegal has the following overall objectives related to UHC: (i) to promote access to health insurance for the poorest 20 percent in order to reduce inequity and vulnerability; (ii) to guarantee that 65 percent of Senegalese are covered by a UHC system by 2015; and (iii) to guarantee that 100 percent of local authorities have a community-based health insurance scheme available in 2015.

In Senegal, many of the UHC indicators proposed by the WHO are tracked to some extent. Nearly all the service coverage indicators related to communicable diseases are available. These indicators include maternity care, child nutrition, child vaccination, treatment of sick children, family planning, malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS services. However, despite the rising burden of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), the proposed global indicators related to them were not tracked in Senegal.